Penguin Blues
by MidnightWhisper7
Summary: Persona 4. Kanji's favorite stuffed animal is destroyed, and Souji comes to the rescue. Implied Kanji x Souji.


**Penguin Blues

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**_Originally published on the Livejournal Persona 4 Kink Meme: badbadbathhouse.

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Kanji Tatsumi would never, ever admit it, but he liked hugs. Not that anyone would think of giving him one, or that he could get over his shyness enough to hug someone else, but the truth was that he slept with a big stuffed penguin every night. The penguin even had a name: Pen-chan. Well, he'd only been six when he'd gotten it, so it wasn't that stupid of a name. Besides, no one else ever needed to know that he slept with a stuffed animal at night.

Until, that is, Yosuke Hanamura and Souji Seta came up to his room for an impromptu study session one afternoon. Kanji knew he was forgetting something as he led the two boys into his bedroom. Yosuke walked inside, and his eyes seemed to immediately make a beeline for the penguin lying against the pillows on Kanji's bed.

"Dude. Tell me you don't sleep with that thing like a little kid."

"S-shut up," Kanji said, his face turning a violent shade of red. "It's jus' that Ma got it for me when I was younger, and I never wanted to throw it out."

Yosuke smirked and raised an eyebrow. "Uh huh, sure, man." He walked over and picked up the penguin. Kanji felt his eye twitching at the sight of someone else touching it.

"It's kind of soft, and I could maybe see Nanako-chan having something like this, but--"

Kanji scowled and glanced at Souji. The gray-haired boy was frowning, but he hadn't said anything so far.

"I told you already, I don't sleep with it! I don't care about a stupid toy like that!" Yosuke smirked.

"Well, I guess if you don't need something like this, I could just give it to Nanako..."

Souji could never quite figure out what happened within the next few seconds. But it seemed as though Kanji grabbed one of the penguin's fins, and Yosuke pulled back on its tail, and then all of a sudden there was a ripping sound and then just stuffing and two halves of a dissected penguin.

Kanji went pale. "P-Pen-chan."

"It has a name, too?" Yosuke muttered, but he actually looked sorry. Or maybe he was just afraid of Kanji beating him up.

"Whatever, I don't need something like that!" He shoved the pieces at Souji. "Go on, throw 'em away. I'm too old for that stuff anyway."

But Souji would swear that he had tears in his eyes.

For the next few days, Souji could tell that Kanji was not doing well. He failed their history test, which was usually one of his better subjects, and almost started a fight with an upperclassman who accidentally bumped into him at lunch. As the week went on, the dark circles under his eyes became more prominent.

Luckily, Yosuke had enough sense of self-preservation not to tease Kanji about the likely cause of his distress, but Souji figured there had to be a way to broach the subject with the younger boy. He had his chance when he found Kanji on the roof of the school building after classes the next day.

Kanji looked up when he heard Souji's footsteps.

"Uh, Senpai," he said, and looked embarrassed. His face was even paler than the day before.

"School is over now. Are you heading home soon?" Souji asked. Kanji jumped in surprise.

"It is? Oh..."

Souji sat down next to his friend. "Are you all right, Kanji?" he asked.

Kanji was staring at his shoes. "Why would you ask that?"

"You don't look good. Is it because of what Yosuke did the other day?"

The underclassman seemed about to protest, but then nodded. He couldn't lie to Souji, not when the boy made more effort than anyone else to understand him.

"Yeah," he said.

Souji stood up. "I'll walk you home and we can talk about it."

On the way to his house, Kanji admitted that he had slept with the penguin every night. It had a lot of sentimental value, but he had been so embarrassed when Yosuke had teased him about it that he had pretended he didn't care. That was obvious, thought Souji. And Kanji was even having trouble with school because of it. Souji offered to help Kanji get back on track by helping him study.

The two of them went up to Kanji's room. Souji pulled out his homework and sat down next to Kanji. He tried to explain the material from the past few days, but he could tell that his friend wasn't really getting it. When Kanji yawned for the fourth time, Souji asked if he'd been getting any sleep at all.

"Er, not really," Kanji admitted. "I thought about buying another toy, but it just wouldn't be the same. And I wanted to prove to myself that I could fall asleep without it. I don't think it's been working so well, though." He looked miserable and tired.

"We won't get a lot of work done like this," Souji said. "You should get some sleep."

"I already told ya," Kanji said. "Nothing works without Pen-chan. Uh, what are you doing, Senpai?"

Souji had taken off his uniform jacket and lain down. He motioned for Kanji to do the same. "It will help you to have someone to sleep next to, right? I've been staying up late, so I could use the rest, too." He smiled encouragingly.

It really was kind of cute the way Kanji's face flushed. "You don't have to do that--" he started to say, but Souji took his hand and pulled him down next to him. At first Kanji just lay awkwardly on his back, his eyes open and a miserable look on his face. But Souji drew close to him, resting his head in the crook of Kanji's shoulder. The taller boy turned towards him slightly, saw Souji's closed eyes and content smile, and put his arm around him. He closed his eyes and sighed. With Senpai, he could be comfortable doing this.

It wasn't Pen-chan, but perhaps it was even better having a real person to sleep next to. Kanji was thinking that it felt nice to be close to Souji like this, and then he fell into a much-needed sleep.


End file.
